WORLD CUP RECORDS (Part 9) - PLAYERS WITH MOST GAMES AS CAPTAIN
Picture : Diego Maradona holds the record until now.
Player with most games as captain: Diego Maradona
*Diego Maradona captained Argentina in 16 World Cup games (at 1986, 1990 and 1994 editions). This is maximal number among all players in the history of competition.
*In the ranking, only those games were counted where a player took the captain armband since the kick-off.
The Mexican Rafael Márquez who is 2nd after Maradona with 15 games, had another two where he took the armband on the course of game as a substitute (vs South Korea 2-1 and vs Germany at 2018 World Cup).
*Lionel Messi has now 12 games as captain at World Cups and Cristiano Ronaldo 11. Each of them has chance to equal or surpass Maradona in Qatar if Argentina and Portugal go far enough after the group stage.
| PLAYERS WITH MOST | WORLD CUP GAMES | AS | CAPTAINS | |
| Player | Country | Games | Breakdown | |
| 1 | Diego Maradona | Argentina | 16 | 1982(0), 1986(7), 1990(7), 1994(2) |
| 2 | Rafael Márquez | Mexico | 15 | 2002(4), 2006(4), 2010(2), 2014(4), 2018(1) |
| 3 | Dino Zoff | Italy | 14 | 1974(0), 1978(7), 1982(7) |
| 4 | Kazimierz Deyna | Poland | 13 | 1974(7), 1978(6) |
| Paolo Maldini | Italy | 13 | 1990(0), 1994(4), 1998(5), 2002(4) | |
| Philipp Lahm | Germany | 13 | 2006(0), 2010(6), 2014(7) | |
| 7 | Ladislav Novák | Czechoslovakia | 12 | 1954(2), 1958(4), 1962(6) |
| Uwe Seeler | Germany | 12 | 1958(0), 1962(0), 1966(6), 1970(6) | |
| Daniel Passarella | Argentina | 12 | 1978(7), 1982(5) | |
| Lothar Matthäus | Germany | 12 | 1982(0), 1986(0), 1990(7), 1994(5), 1998(0) | |
| Lionel Messi | Argentina | 12 | 2006(0), 2010(1), 2014(7), 2018(4) | |
| 12 | Dunga | Brazil | 11 | 1990(0), 1994(4), 1998(7) |
| Cafu | Brazil | 11 | 1994(0), 1998(0), 2002(7), 2006(4) | |
| Iker Casillas | Spain | 11 | 2002(0), 2006(2), 2010(7), 2014(2) | |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 11 | 2006(0), 2010(4), 2014(3), 2018(4) |